Post by Delta on Jan 22, 2006 16:19:04 GMT
Let's get educational, lol.
Croatian Cinema
The early moving pictures of the Lumiere brothers were seen in Zagreb, Croatia's capital in October 1896, not more than ten months after their world premiere in Paris. However, it was almost a half of the century before Croatian films were produced in an organised way. It was difficult to establish and maintain a national film industry within a tiny market, with few cinemas and in a language spoken and understood only by a small number of potential viewers internationally.
The impetus for film production in Croatia was given by totalitarian regimes that controlled Croatia in the 20th Century. Film was considered a suitable medium for ideological and political propaganda. From 1941 to 1945, the pro-Nazi regime of Ante Pavelic's Ustashe - in supposedly 'independent' Croatia - systematically produced mostly propaganda films. A couple of cultural documentaries were shot, as well as Lisinski/Lisinski (1944), the first Croatian feature-length sound film about the life of the composer of the first Croatian opera in the 19th century. The film was directed by Oktavijan Miletic, Croatia's first internationally known film artist, who won awards in amateur festivals in the 1930's.
The victory of communism in Croatia resulted in the communists using film for their own purposes. Within Tito's Yugoslavia of six republics the film industry got started. In Croatia it was based on technically well-equipped studios, inherited from the Ustashe regime. As there were no trained experts, the work was being done mostly by young enthusiasts for whom politics provided a chance to create art. The early films were of course dedicated to wartime partisans, glorifying their cause, but soon directors started showing an interest for exploring different film genres.
Socialist realism, a term imported from Soviet Union as an aesthetic concept but never really defined, was abandoned after Tito's clash with Stalin. It left behind only one critically successful film - Bakonja fra-Brne (1951) by Fedor Hanzekovic.
Unlike in other republics, it was customary in Croatia for a couple of years to pass without any partisan films, while other significant films and directors emerged.
Koncert/Concert (1954) by Branko Belan is considered to be the most valuable film in the struggle for the film industry's liberation from ideological concerns.
Under the socialist regime, the influence of politics could never have been completely excluded. But in the fifties and sixties a few praiseworthy pieces emerged.
Branko Bauer (Ne okreci se sine/Don't look back, my son, 1956); Nikola Tanhofer (H-8, 1958; Dvostruki obruc/Double circle, 1963) and Veljko Bulajic (Vlak bez voznog reda/Train without a timetable, 1959) created films that stand out in Yugoslav cinematography, but are important internationally as well.
In the mid sixties a new branch of Croatian film emerged referred to as auteur film, as part of new cinema movements throughout Europe, from Polish film noir to French new wave. An old partisans retribution for his war deeds in Prometej s otoka Visevice/Prometheus from the Island of Visevica (1964) by Vatroslav Mimica, inaugurated a modern approach to delicate political subjects, and was followed by other films now regarded as classics.
Rondo (1966) by Zvonimir Berkovic is a film concerning a love triangle told in the style and rhythm of a Mozart piece. Breza/The Birch Tree (1967) by Ante Babaja is a rural tragedy invoking the spirit and colours of Croatian 'naïve' painters. Krsto Papic in his film Lisice/Handcuffs (1969) dramatically revealed how Yugoslav secret police brutally dealt with Stalin's supporters in 1948. This created Papic a lot of problems during the 'liberal' phase of Tito's rule.
Croatian critics have in two polls proclaimed the lovely ironic music comedy Tko pjeva zlo ne misli/He Who Sings Means No Harm (1970) by Kreso Golik to be “the best Croatian film of all time”.
Regarding this aesthetically fruitful era of Croatian film, mention should go to Antun Vrdoljak's films Kad cujes zvona/When You Hear the Bells (1969) and U gori raste zelen bor/The Pine Tree in the Mountain (1971) where Partisan mythology of World War II is displaced by credible portrayals of characters and situations.
In the last two decades of Socialist Yugoslavia the numbers of films increased as new directors appeared. The ones that should be mentioned here are followers of 'Prague school': Rajko Grlic and Lordan Zafranovic, Fadil Hadzic and representatives of the younger generation: Zoran Tadic, Petar Krelja, Branko Schmidt and Zrinko Ogresta.
Croatian film was not recognised within the framework of the then politics of Yugoslav cultural unification. Festivals and critics weren't able to differentiate directors and films from their specific national backgrounds. The only presentation of Croatian cinema under its own national title took place in September 1971 in London when the National Film Theatre's Ken Wlaschin picked and showed 8 films, 9 animated films and 10 documentaries.
As Croatia gained its independence, the reasons for the anonymity of Croatian film disappeared but directors had to face the problems common to transition countries as well as the ones created by war for independence.
Some experienced Croatian directors made a couple of films but this period is marked by a completely new generation arising from the Academy of Drama in Zagreb, among them internationally recognised Vinko Bresan, Lukas Nola, Dalibor Matanic and Snjezana Tribuson. From them and the next generation - we can expect new Croatian films to continue making a recognisable contribution to European cinema.
P.S. Je li netko gledao "Fine Dead Girls" od Matanica? Komentari?
Croatian Cinema
The early moving pictures of the Lumiere brothers were seen in Zagreb, Croatia's capital in October 1896, not more than ten months after their world premiere in Paris. However, it was almost a half of the century before Croatian films were produced in an organised way. It was difficult to establish and maintain a national film industry within a tiny market, with few cinemas and in a language spoken and understood only by a small number of potential viewers internationally.
The impetus for film production in Croatia was given by totalitarian regimes that controlled Croatia in the 20th Century. Film was considered a suitable medium for ideological and political propaganda. From 1941 to 1945, the pro-Nazi regime of Ante Pavelic's Ustashe - in supposedly 'independent' Croatia - systematically produced mostly propaganda films. A couple of cultural documentaries were shot, as well as Lisinski/Lisinski (1944), the first Croatian feature-length sound film about the life of the composer of the first Croatian opera in the 19th century. The film was directed by Oktavijan Miletic, Croatia's first internationally known film artist, who won awards in amateur festivals in the 1930's.
The victory of communism in Croatia resulted in the communists using film for their own purposes. Within Tito's Yugoslavia of six republics the film industry got started. In Croatia it was based on technically well-equipped studios, inherited from the Ustashe regime. As there were no trained experts, the work was being done mostly by young enthusiasts for whom politics provided a chance to create art. The early films were of course dedicated to wartime partisans, glorifying their cause, but soon directors started showing an interest for exploring different film genres.
Socialist realism, a term imported from Soviet Union as an aesthetic concept but never really defined, was abandoned after Tito's clash with Stalin. It left behind only one critically successful film - Bakonja fra-Brne (1951) by Fedor Hanzekovic.
Unlike in other republics, it was customary in Croatia for a couple of years to pass without any partisan films, while other significant films and directors emerged.
Koncert/Concert (1954) by Branko Belan is considered to be the most valuable film in the struggle for the film industry's liberation from ideological concerns.
Under the socialist regime, the influence of politics could never have been completely excluded. But in the fifties and sixties a few praiseworthy pieces emerged.
Branko Bauer (Ne okreci se sine/Don't look back, my son, 1956); Nikola Tanhofer (H-8, 1958; Dvostruki obruc/Double circle, 1963) and Veljko Bulajic (Vlak bez voznog reda/Train without a timetable, 1959) created films that stand out in Yugoslav cinematography, but are important internationally as well.
In the mid sixties a new branch of Croatian film emerged referred to as auteur film, as part of new cinema movements throughout Europe, from Polish film noir to French new wave. An old partisans retribution for his war deeds in Prometej s otoka Visevice/Prometheus from the Island of Visevica (1964) by Vatroslav Mimica, inaugurated a modern approach to delicate political subjects, and was followed by other films now regarded as classics.
Rondo (1966) by Zvonimir Berkovic is a film concerning a love triangle told in the style and rhythm of a Mozart piece. Breza/The Birch Tree (1967) by Ante Babaja is a rural tragedy invoking the spirit and colours of Croatian 'naïve' painters. Krsto Papic in his film Lisice/Handcuffs (1969) dramatically revealed how Yugoslav secret police brutally dealt with Stalin's supporters in 1948. This created Papic a lot of problems during the 'liberal' phase of Tito's rule.
Croatian critics have in two polls proclaimed the lovely ironic music comedy Tko pjeva zlo ne misli/He Who Sings Means No Harm (1970) by Kreso Golik to be “the best Croatian film of all time”.
Regarding this aesthetically fruitful era of Croatian film, mention should go to Antun Vrdoljak's films Kad cujes zvona/When You Hear the Bells (1969) and U gori raste zelen bor/The Pine Tree in the Mountain (1971) where Partisan mythology of World War II is displaced by credible portrayals of characters and situations.
In the last two decades of Socialist Yugoslavia the numbers of films increased as new directors appeared. The ones that should be mentioned here are followers of 'Prague school': Rajko Grlic and Lordan Zafranovic, Fadil Hadzic and representatives of the younger generation: Zoran Tadic, Petar Krelja, Branko Schmidt and Zrinko Ogresta.
Croatian film was not recognised within the framework of the then politics of Yugoslav cultural unification. Festivals and critics weren't able to differentiate directors and films from their specific national backgrounds. The only presentation of Croatian cinema under its own national title took place in September 1971 in London when the National Film Theatre's Ken Wlaschin picked and showed 8 films, 9 animated films and 10 documentaries.
As Croatia gained its independence, the reasons for the anonymity of Croatian film disappeared but directors had to face the problems common to transition countries as well as the ones created by war for independence.
Some experienced Croatian directors made a couple of films but this period is marked by a completely new generation arising from the Academy of Drama in Zagreb, among them internationally recognised Vinko Bresan, Lukas Nola, Dalibor Matanic and Snjezana Tribuson. From them and the next generation - we can expect new Croatian films to continue making a recognisable contribution to European cinema.
P.S. Je li netko gledao "Fine Dead Girls" od Matanica? Komentari?